Category: shoe etui set

I am just completing the bobbin pincushion from the shoe etui set, designed by Chantal of Mamilou Creations in France. I bought the pattern pack as a pdf download a couple of years ago.

I am up to the part where I need to make the padded top, now that I have finished and attached the cross stitch embroidery itself to the spindle of the wooden bobbin.

I cut a base piece for the padded top first from very stiff cardboard, just a little bit smaller than the circumference of the bobbin.

I decided to use a piece of cotton quilting fabric for the top.

I used a saucer to roughly cut out the circle of fabric – it’s about five inches diameter.

Then I stitched round the edge of the circle with large running stitches using strong quilting cotton, and pulled the thread up tightly, pushing wadding into the centre first, and laying the cardboard circle in place just before I ended the thread off with a good knot.

Then I used Araldite glue to stick the padded piece to the top of the wooden bobbin. I held it tightly in place for a few hours with elastic bands, until the glue had dried.

And here’s the finished pincushion:

This only took just over a week of so-called ‘free time’ to make, which, for me, is a very small project. But I’m very pleased with it.

A couple of years ago, I bought a pdf chart for a beautiful cross stitch shoe etui set, from Chantal of Mamilou Creations, based in France. It’s a really innovative design, and I love it! I’m stitching it on 28 count pale lilac evenweave fabric from Wichelt (bought from SewandSo in the UK). Chantal creates many beautiful etui sets in chart form for you to make (email her for details of how to buy, as her blog doesn’t sell directly to the public, but the blog has many lovely photos of her work).

The wooden bobbin was bought from Etsy – there are several people selling them on there, so there’s a lot of choice of sizes – all vintage. The pattern calls for a bobbin that has a spindle 4cm wide, to accommodate the design.

I hunted around for a while for a suitable colour scheme to stitch it in, and finally decided to stitch it in variegated deep purple/cerise, with metallic silver highlights, using Petite Treasure braid. The Gloriana thread is very pretty, but I realised once I started stitching with it that the changes of colour are a bit too subtle for this project – it just looks like solid purple once stitched! I could have used my Anchor stranded cotton stash really, and saved myself £5 for the one skein…..

I’m making the bobbin pincushion first. The design is really easy – in fact, it was a bit TOO easy for me, and I got a bit bored with the scrolly bits at the side, and kept putting it aside for something more challenging sometimes.

But the finished result is worth it:

To make the panel into a band ready to attach to the centre of the bobbin, the instructions say (in French, so I’m guessing a bit here!) to iron a piece of interfacing to the reverse side, just inside the outer line of stitching. Then press the seam allowances in, right on the edges of the stitching – pressing the straight sides first, then also across the corners at 45 degrees.

The seam allowances are then tacked into place (badly!!), taking the stitches very lightly through the interfacing only.